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It's a dark night. Heavy clouds are covering most of the stars and the moon, and Colin cycles silently through the gloomy streets. The sleek shape of the blackbird casts no shadow, but guides his young charge as surely as a lighthouse. He helps him enter the building and find his way to the roof, where strong gusts of wind whip his black hair around. Colin flicks his lighter on and shields the flame for a few moments from the wind, taking comfort in its warmth.

So what exactly am I supposed to do? You talked about meditating. How should I do that?

Colin looks around for the traces of the ritual. A ritual that was meant to call upon a powerful entity to do their bidding and to kill one of his best friends. How could anyone be so stupid? He can't understand that. Maybe what he's trying to do here is more than they deserve anyway. Maybe Sylvia is right. But... he's not like this. He can't stand aside and do nothing. Everybody should have a chance to atone for what he did. Leland went too far, he went beyond his ability to help him. Maybe the witches have went too far too. Bobby said this could happen. Still, he has to know.

He sits down, not withing the circle, but just beside it. He closes his eyes, starts breathing deeply and regularly, and lets the wind fill his head.

You'll have to use the circle.  There's no way to see their path, except through the window they opened.  The blackbird lands on a nearby wire and watches.

Reluctantly, Colin moves inside the circle. He can't help but shudder remembering the last circle of them he found himself into.

He sits down, crosses his legs, and tries again.

OOC: Colin needs to make a Will Save DC 24 (wow)

Colin relaxes and feels the wind whip up around him.  Suddenly he feels a presence, and finds that the spirits of the witches have come.

"We've been waiting for you Spirit Dancer."  one says, and Colin realizes it's the voice of the Blackbird.  Now the realization comes to him, ever since the ritual the way the Blackbird has spoken has been different, less cryptic and more like someone Colin's own age.

Will Save (reroll) (1d20.minroll(11)+6=23) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1110915)

OOC: failed by one.  :'(

The witches grin evilly and swarm into Colin.  He feels himself being torn apart by the greedy spirits, sucking away his power and his life force, and then the storm is over and he lay in the remnants of the now charred circle, his chest pounding and his head aching, a taste like copper pennies in his mouth and rain falling on him from the cloudy fall sky.

"Blackbird! Blackbird, where are you?"

The only reply is an eerie wind, and the rain.

Colin starts crying, almost uncontrollably.

Another trap. I let it happen again. I failed.

He stands up, lost in the enormity of what is happened to him he doesn't feel the rain.

They gave me the power to see the truth, and not even one I think of using it.

He goes to the rail and looks down for a long long moment.

How could I be so stupid? I didn't deserve this gift. They should have given it to someone more worthy. Someone that wouldn't fall twice for their tricks. What was I trying to do, anyway? 'Saint Colin' indeed. Good job, Spirit Dancer.

He falls on the floor and cries some more, getting completely soaked.

Then finally he reaches for his cellphone, and dials Bobby's number.

The phone rings a few times before it's answered, "Yeah?"  It's Bobby's voice and the background sounds like a busy street somewhere.

"Bobby..." Colin whispers with a broken voice "...it's Colin. I fell into a trap and they... They took it away, Bobby. The power, the blackbird, everything. They took it."

He can't help but start crying again, and looking around he realizes everything seems fuzzy.

Of course. No more ghost sight. I'm going to need glasses again.

"Well sport, sounds like you're gonna have to get it back.  Any ideas on how you might go about that?"

"No, I have no idea. Everything we tried in the end only blew up on our faces. They're always one step ahead, they always know what we will do. And it's probably my fault for that as well."

He struggles to stop crying.

"They've tried to kill my friends, several times already. If they undid the binding now, I don't know what they're going to do, but they must be stopped. And I cannot anymore."

"Hey, don't get ahead of yourself.  You're not sure what you can and can't do yet.  Just because you can't hear the Blackbird doesn't mean you aren't still the Spirit Dancer.  You might still be able to do all kinds of stuff, you just have to work a little harder maybe."

Colin looks around for something that could reflect his image. When he finds it, he tries looking at it with his ghost sight, like he did the first times, when he was trying to wake it up.

Please let me see my aura. Please, let me see.

There is a flash like lightning and Colin sees a web of thousands of tiny silver threads running away from him, waving in a wind out of sync with the wind blowing on the roof.  In the reflection, next to him and slightly behind him, is his father.  "We can't save everyone.  The hardest part is knowing which ones you can't save, no matter how hard you try, and focusing on the ones you can save."  There is another flash, and the ghost is gone, but the web of threads remains.

Colin stares at his reflected image, at the void behind him where his father was, and at the threads getting out of him.
He's not crying anymore. He's clenching his teeth.

"Bobby, it looks like I have a trail. What should I do once I find them? How do I take back what they've stolen? Have you got any suggestion?"

"Those threads aren't what you think they are.  I'm sure some of them will lead to your witches, but that's not there purpose.  As for suggestions.  If it were me, I'd be unpleasant.  Since I'm not sure you've got it in you yet, maybe you can just bring attention to what they've done.  The kind of attention that only you can bring.  Remember, just because they took it doesn't make the power theres."

Colin nods silently.

"I see. Thank you, Bobby. Wish me good luck."

"You don't need luck hero, just confidence."  Bobby hangs up.

Colin nods again, then he tries calling Donnie.

"Please, be awake. Come on, pick up that phone."

It rings three times, then Donnie answers. It sounds as if wind is whipping around him.  "Colin! I am on my way. I know what happened. Althea and I are on the outskirts of the city and we'll be ther in just a minute. I'm so sorry man. If only I had deciphered the spell sooner.."

"Ah... It's not your fault. It's mine. They already fooled me once, I should have expected it. Thank you, Donnie. We'll talk as you get here."

As Donnie and Althea get closer Colin can see one of the threads pull taught and upwards.  When he glances around to follow it he realizes he can see them faintly even when not looking at a reflection.  The thread goes up to Donnie.

Althea lands delicately on the edge of the roof snd Donnie slithers down her forleg until his tennis shoes slap onto the stone tile of the rooftop. Althea falls away from the building and the two boys can hear the thunderous flap of her wings as she climbs to find a perch.

Donnie walks wquickly over to Colin, clasping his shoulder. "Colin, I wish I had been able to understand the spell better." He quickly tells Colin of Megan and Jon's finding the spell in the basement (which Colin already knew) and explains the permutations of the spell. "This is major mojo. They knew about the binding and everything ahead of time, because this spell would take a week to create. It's beyond me, so the bwitches certainly could not have created it themselves. Someone made this spell for them, crafted specifically to target you. They must have snipped some of your hair while they had you to focus this spell. No other way they could have been this successful without some part of you."

"They have been helped to do this?"

Colin's left fist clenches uncontrollably.

"Donnie, take my hand." He grasps his friend's hand, hoping something happens.

"I can see... a web of silver threads, running away from me. One of them goes straight to you. Can you see them? Do you know what they mean?"

OOC: Donnie can't see them, but make an Arcana check DC 16

Arcana Check (1d20+12=30) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1115223)

"I don't see anything, dude."

Donnie pauses, tapping his index finger idly on his cheek as he thinks about what Colin has said.

"It could be that you are describing the Threads of Fate. Everything in this world (and the next) is connected somehow through circumstance or divine plan, I dunno. People who have a certain specialty in the Arts like some magicians and many shamans will use them to determine who should marry, when someone will die, and how people are connected to try and decipher the future. Learning to read these threads is an Art unto itself."

And how is this going to help me, dad, if I can't read them?

"Ok. Well, Then they're probably not something we should worry about right now. Actually I have no idea what we should worry about now, except that we should probably get the witches before they try to do something with their powers or with what they stole from me. They're probably still at the hospital, aren't they? Let's get the others to meet us there, before they can get away."

"Sylvia, Sarah, and probably Kel are on their way here right now. We can get to the hospital pretty fast from here. Should we wait for them here?"

Colin sighs.

"Ok. Please. Tell me everything you know about the spell they used."

While they wait for the others, Donnie explains the multi-layer spell and the complexity of it, noting the marginalia of comments by the bwitches. It seems the spell was given to them and they figured out how to cast it, writing notes to themselves in the margins.

"With the complexity of it all and the necessary preparedness for the spells creation, I am starting to have some deep suspicions that perhaps the bwitches were not the ultimate perpetrators of the original, um, using of your powers."

"Speaking of the bwitches, have you spoken with Sammy? I haven't heard a thing from her since school let out for the week. We really should warn her the damn girls have awakened since they tried to sacrifice her and everything. Damn. I wonder what the sacrifical ceremony was about if they planned on stealing your power to break my bindings. Giving Rob a chunk of power can't have been totally altruistic. Jesus, I am so confused.."

Donnie sits on the edge of the building, head in hands as he tries to figure it out.

"So what you're saying is that someone used them to get at me? Someone who knows more than them about black magic?! Someone who could provide them with drugs for their thugs to try to get rid of  you and the others?!!!"

Colin stares into the dark, cloudy sky, as a distant thunder rumbles above.

"Very well. Now it's war."


"Sorry, I haven't heard anything from Sammy either. I only found her cellphone at school. Sarah told me she's in California with Elrod now. I do wonder though what Rob knew about all of this. He seemed to know a lot of things when we talked."

"I'm jumping to conclusions. But we should ask him a couple of questions anyway."